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Thursday, November 12, 2009

Straight Talk About Home Based Business

Do not be carried away by the ‘pie in the sky’ promises made by home-based business promoters that you will become financially independent in 90 days or less if you buy their ebooks or training programs. Nothing could be further from the truth.

First, you need to know that the marketplace is ruthless. It does not pay you simply for showing up, according to your needs, or for how many hours you work. It pays you for the value you bring to the marketplace. That value may take the form of a new product or service, or a significant improvement in an existing product or service.

Do not invest a cent in a home-based business until you are clear in your mind about what value you can bring to the marketplace. Once you’ve made that decision be encouraged by the fact that giant corporations like Hershey Chocolate, Ford Motor Company, Mary Kay Cosmetics and Apple Computers started out as home-based businesses. In fact, over 50% of all US businesses are based out of an owner’s home.

Are you ready and able to run a business? How much do you really want to change your life? How much does it mean to you? How much do you want a future different from the one your current life has install for you? What sacrifice are you prepared to make to achieve it? Are you receptive to new ideas and new ways of thinking and doing things?

If you want to have more than what you have now, you must become more. Are you prepared to read long hours to learn new skills and use them in your business? Are you prepared to work tirelessly to improve upon the value you bring to the marketplace, since what is valuable this year may not be so next year?

Hold onto your regular job, and use the home-based business as a second job. This is an advice worth heeding. It takes 2 years or more to begin making any significant income from a home-based business. Unless you are an independently wealthy person, you will have difficulty supporting yourself and your family on a home-based business in the first 2 years of operation.

Lack of planning, insufficient financial backing and poor management are the main reasons many home-based businesses fail. Certainly, your will need to put your business on the Internet. Have you decided on your website design; on the source of its content, and the advertisement modality to inform the public about your product or service?

Have you thought about not only the advantages of being your own boss, but also the challenges inherent in running a home-based business, including the lack of guaranteed employee wages and benefits, lack of job security, frequent interruptions arising from close proximity to your family, long working hours, legal requirements including zoning regulations, insufficient time to go out with family and friends.

Will your business be a public corporation, partnership or sole proprietorship? Not forgetting your responsibilities of acquiring licenses, complying with regulations, paying taxes, obtaining insurance policies, maintaining good record, advertising campaigns, pricing your product, and your financial obligation to your creditors in the event the business fails.

Do you have a support network to help you through the tough times: for there will be many. Your support network would include your family, business associates and friends who have had similar experiences in business.

Are you one who easily gives up when things get really tough, or are you going to hang in there and see what you started through? Are you prone to tantrums when something doesn’t go the way you wanted, or are you patient, self-disciplined and focused at such time?

Once you complete setting up your home-based business, within 3 months, give or take, you will find a difference emerging between your plan and the actual events in your business. You will have to constantly refine your business plans taking account of what is happening on the ground, in order to achieve your business goals.

A home-based business has the potential to make you a very rich person, but the path to that wealth is littered with the remains of millions of broken dreams. Be sure not to add your dreams onto that pile. Go to the Small Business Administration website, or talk to a small business consultant for advice on your potential market, your product or service, its sales promotion, delivery and profit potential.